£70m promised for citizenship lessons in schools and English-speaking imams

Gordon Brown yesterday announced a four-fold increase in funding for a range of measures to help Muslim groups tackle violent extremism in their communities.

Over the next three years, the government will set aside £70m to support local authorities and community groups to improve how they deal with the threat of terrorism in their midst, he said.

The measures include lessons on citizenship in Britain's 1,000 madrasas, or Islamic religious schools, sponsorship of English-speaking imams and a proposal for interfaith bodies in every community.

The prime minister said the money would "support local authorities and community groups in improving the capacity of local communities to resist violent extremism. This will include developing leadership programmes for young people, strengthening the capacity of women's groups, and local projects to build citizenship".

He said he wanted to extend a pilot project in Bradford, which includes citizenship education in their curriculum, to Britain's 1,000 madrasas, educating between 50,000 and 100,000 young people.

"We will also support a new skills qualification in citizenship and community cohesion for faith leaders, sponsor English-speaking imams, propose interfaith bodies in every community in the country to build greater understanding, and update guidance to universities before the autumn on how they can do more to protect the safety and security of vulnerable young people."

Mr Brown confirmed funding for a BBC Arabic channel and an editorially independent Farsi TV channel for the people of Iran.

The government would report back to parliament on further measures that will "isolate extremists who preach and practise terrorism", he said.

"Our priority as a government is a Britain strong in security, robust in our resolve, resilient in response, so that as a nation we both defeat terrorism and isolate violent extremism, wherever we confront it and whatever its source."

Communities secretary, Hazel Blears, said: "The stark reality is that our country faces a sustained terrorist threat. A tough security response is vital, but to be safe in the longer term we need to reach people before they are drawn into violent extremism.

"The massive increase in funding for our work announced today will boost the support we are able to give to communities who refuse to be intimidated by violent extremists. We will be able to take our work to new areas of the country and step up our efforts to reach the most disaffected."

However, the initiative received a mixed response among Muslim groups.

Faiz Siddiqi, convenor of the Muslim Action Committee, a faith-based coalition of more than 700 mosques and imams, said Mr Brown's initiative showed he was heading in the right direction, but it was not enough to tackle the problem.

"The problem is that radicalism in the community is being caused by excessive sums of money coming into the country from Saudi Arabia and other countries which support radical ideology. One estimate stands at £7bn over the last 25 or 30 years. So, I'm not convinced that £70m over three years is going to resolve the issues that are facing our community.

"Hatred and radicalism is firmly embedded in our community. But look at what has been outlined as priorities - has the teaching of citizenship addressed social disorder in the mainstream community? Look at Abu Hamza, or look at the people who were inciting people to murder - they spoke English. It just doesn't stack up."

Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain, welcomed the increase in funds. However, he said the key question was whether or not the money would be dispersed fairly.

"There have been accusations that the government's community department favours organisations which have been uncritical of government policy. It is vital that the Department of Communities does not play politics and that it disperses funding to all groups involved in tackling extremism."

GCSE schools guide

Interactive: This guide is designed to help parents find and research local schools in England. Search by postcode to find which schools offer individual subjects, and compare how they have performed in GCSE exams